Take the Gym Class Games challenge

Updated 11:36 am, Monday, April 9, 2012

Do you remember the kid who was always getting hit in the face with the dodgeball or the girl who couldn't boot the kickball past the pitcher in gym class?

That's not us.

Do you want to take us on? Come out for the Times Union Gym Class Games Challenge, part of the Fit as a Family/Capital District YMCA Healthy Kids Day April 28.

If you're a member of a local club, society, guild, gym or loose collective of pickup-game athletes, challenge the Times Union's crack squad to a match. Be warned: After 12 years of exhaustive training in public school gym class or a decade of CYO basketball we're really good at the games we know, and fast learners at the ones we don't know.

Take us on in the We have a team ready to take you on in your best game and we'll come to the YMCA closest to you to take your challenge. Then we'll write a story about the games we play, say basketball in Bethlehem or dodgeball in Schenectady, you name it.

Send your challenge — with a short description of your game and your team — to tormsbee@timesunion.com, or call 454-5486 by Friday, April 20.

Then, start training. It will be your town, your rules — and your enduring shame when professional journalists show you up.

Bring it.

The Gym Class Games Challenge is the latest event in the Times Union's Fit as a Family series to promote family fitness and health. The six-month series, presented by Albany Medical Center in partnership with the Capital District YMCA and Price Chopper, reached its halfway mark this month.

Since January, we've come together for a World Record Attempt to do the most simultaneous fist-bumps, toured the dairy and cereal aisles of the local grocery store and we heard from a researcher who lowered kids' BMI in one community.

We've also written about three local families who have helped us illustrate the challenges of trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the midst of a busy schedule. Nina Marinello, The Healthy Professor, who heads up the nutrition department at The Sage Colleges in Troy, has been taking us through her Nutrition 101 Course with twice monthly installments in the Saturday Health section of the Times Union.

More Information

Fit as a Family, presented by Albany Medical Center in partnership with Capital District YMCA and Price Chopper, is a six-month Times Union project intended to help our community live healthier. Look for information in the newspaper, HealthyLife magazine and on timesunion.com, and join us at fun, informative community events.

Join in:

At every Fit as a Family event you attend, you can enter to win the grand prize to be presented in June: A family membership for a year to the Capital District YMCA; four adult course admissions to Adirondack Extreme in Bolton Landing featuring rope swings, cable bridges and zip lines; and four single games of mini golf and four single serve cones at Lumberjack Pass Miniature Golf in Lake George. Learn more at http://timesunion.com/fitasafamily. Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/fitasafamily.

Here's what to look for in the coming months:

April 28: Healthy Kids Day at Capital District YMCAs.

May 5: Capital District YMCA Healthy Community Series 5K Run, 3K Walk, and Kids Fun Run set for Washington Park in Albany. Learn more at www.CDYMCA.org.

June 16: Fit as a Family final celebration at CDYMCA's Camp Nassau with drawing for the grand prize of a year membership at the YMCA and four adult course admissions to Adirondack Extreme in Bolton Landing and passes to Lumberjack Pass Miniature Golf in Lake George.